To His Forsaken Mistress
I do confess thou’rt smooth and fair,And I might have gone near to love thee,Had I not found the slightest prayerThat lips could move, had power to move thee;But I can let thee now aloneAs worthy to be loved by none.
I do confess thou’rt sweet; yet findThee such an unthrift of thy sweets,Thy favours are but like the windThat kisseth everything it meets:And since thou canst with more than one,Thou’rt worthy to be kiss’d by none.
The morning rose that untouch’d standsArm’d with her briers, how sweet she smells!But pluck’d and strain’d through ruder hands,Her sweets no longer with her dwells:But scent and beauty both are gone,And leaves fall from her, one by one.
Such fate ere long will thee betideWhen thou hast handled been awhile,With sere flowers to be thrown aside;And I shall sigh, while some will smile,To see thy love to every oneHath brought thee to be loved by none.
Words in this poem
- unthrift n.
- Want of thrift; untriftiness; prodigality.
- betide v. t.
- To happen to; to befall; to come to ; as, woe betide the wanderer. [OE. bitiden; pref. bi-, be- + tiden, fr. AS. tidan, to happen, fr. tid time. See Tide.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
- sere n.
- Claw; talon. Chapman. [F. serre.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To His Forsaken Mistress is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sir Robert Ayton, To His Forsaken Mistress, in Poems (1570–1638), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-sir-robert-ayton/to-his-forsaken-mistress.html, id L16003.
Form and metre
To His Forsaken Mistress is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB-- fairA · theeB · prayerA · theeB · alone · none
- 2 ABABCC findA · sweetsB · windA · meetsB · oneC · noneC
- 3 ABAB-- standsA · smellsB · handsA · dwellsB · gone · one
- 4 ABABCC betideA · awhileB · asideA · smileB · oneC · noneC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I do confess thou’rt smooth and fair, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And I might have gone near to love thee, | 9 | ········· |
| Had I not found the slightest prayer | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That lips could move, had power to move thee; | 9 | ·····/··· |
| But I can let thee now alone | 8 | ······˘/ |
| As worthy to be loved by none. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| I do confess thou’rt sweet; yet find | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Thee such an unthrift of thy sweets, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Thy favours are but like the wind | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That kisseth everything it meets: | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And since thou canst with more than one, | 8 | ········ |
| Thou’rt worthy to be kiss’d by none. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The morning rose that untouch’d stands | 8 | ·/˘··˘/· |
| Arm’d with her briers, how sweet she smells! | 8 | ···/···· |
| But pluck’d and strain’d through ruder hands, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Her sweets no longer with her dwells: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But scent and beauty both are gone, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And leaves fall from her, one by one. | 8 | ········ |
| Such fate ere long will thee betide | 8 | ······˘/ |
| When thou hast handled been awhile, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| With sere flowers to be thrown aside; | 8 | ··/···˘/ |
| And I shall sigh, while some will smile, | 8 | ········ |
| To see thy love to every one | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Hath brought thee to be loved by none. | 8 | ········ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.